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I strongly doubt that the trend toward aggressive policing is to the benefit of young black males and minority communities. Show me some studies that show anything like that and I'll consider revising my views on this. The plain fact is that crime has been going down now for over 20 years and no one, not criminologists, sociologists, police chiefs or mayors can show that it is their policies and procedures (such as stop and frisk) that have achieved that result. They all want to take the credit, but to my knowledge so far there is no definitive causative link.

I am as concerned by the tactics displayed here as by the possible unjustified arrest and the trend toward more "contempt of cop" arrests which is actually official oppression and profiling.

It seems to me that not considering how the incident started makes any discussion totally meaningless here. We know someone called the police. We know that when they arrived they didn't actually witness a fight or a crime (otherwise they would have started with an arrest and not just questioning) because there would have been charges. It appears that the 16-year old, Romengeno Hardaway, asserted his rights (to speak #1, not to be questioned and not to allow the police onto his family's property to question him) and the police did not like that. In my book that is usually "contempt of cop" which is not a legal offense. All people should be allowed to exercise their constitutional rights in my opinion no matter where they live or what they look like.

What I interpret two of you saying is that it is OK to violate someone's rights, especially a minority's rights in a troubled neighborhood in order to ensure all our safety. Now we have not seen the police's side of the story, but apparently they did come onto the family property despite not being allowed to do so. Is that really what you are advocating?